40 Year Old Olamide Adekunle Makes History as Youngest Female SAN

(Olamide Ehinfun Adekunle. Photo by YabaLeftOnline)

Olamide Ehinfun Adekunle is now one of Nigeria's Senior Advocates of Nigeria, and at 40 she is the youngest woman ever to get the rank.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kudirat Kekere Ekun, swore her in on October 12, 2026, along with 67 other lawyers.

Four of the new SANs are women.

The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee had approved her promotion back on July 23.

She was born in 1986 in Kaduna State, but her family is from Ijero Ekiti in Ekiti State.

She studied law at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife and went on to the Nigerian Law School.

She later earned a master's degree in international trade law from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Before joining Afe Babalola & Co. in 2013, she worked at D. D. Dodo & Co. and the Nuhu Ribadu Campaign Organisation.

She is now a partner at the firm.

Her work covers complex court cases, business disputes, oil and gas, arbitration, election petitions and regulatory matters.

She has also appeared before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

She has spoken openly about how slow the justice system can be and how expensive long court cases are for people and businesses.

Her interest in law started young.

Her parents said she was talkative as a child, and her father often told stories about politics in the old Western Region and about the famous lawyer Chief Rotimi Williams, known as Timi the Law.

She has also named Aare Afe Babalola, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, Kehinde Ogunwumiju and Pastor R. A. Ogunwole as people who shaped her career.